Fourth Sunday of Advent

“his name is Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”

The name ‘Emmanuel’, which first appears in the Bible in Isaiah 7:14 encapsulates the reality of the Kingdom of God: God’s presence with us 24/7 every week of our life. However, like gravity, God does not shout. He is there with us as silent as love.

At Christmas, in so many lives in the UK,  Jesus is pushed behind and hidden by Father Christmas, Santa Claus and The Christmas Tree.

Father Christmas combines two traditions:the English personification of Christmas feasting (a jolly, green-clad figure from pagan Yule) and the gift-giving traditions of St. Nicholas (a 4th-century Greek bishop known for generosity). 

Dutch settlers brought St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas) to America, merging with the English Father Christmas, eventually evolving into the modern Santa Claus with his red suit, sleigh, and reindeer, especially after Victorian-era revivals. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularised the ever-green Christmas Tree celebrating the winter solstice with its ‘rebirth of the unconquered Sun’.

Having been born in what is now Chechia, when I was a child, our presents arrived on Christmas Eve, providentially when, just after the evening meal of carp had finished and our father left the room, a bell sounded to tell us that at the birth of Jesus the angels had brought our presents. With these we would play until, as we got older, we went to midnight mass.

Thanks to this, for me, Christmas has always focused on Jesus not Santa Klaus. 

On Christmas Day, straight after my early morning “Beloved God, you know everything, you know that I love you” I can shout – because I live alone, “Happy Birthday Jesus”.

The incarnation, God living with us as human as well as divine, generates and sustains my hope and an optimistic grip on life.

I know that if I do my best – and thus keep my homilies short – I can leave the rest to God. With no worries.